Sunday, May 19, 2013

Kenny Vaccaro Scouting Report


Age: 23

        Kenny Vaccaro is a top safety prospect for this year's draft coming out of the University of Texas (UT).  Vaccaro was born on January 1st, 1990, in Brownwood, Texas.  There, he attended Early High School where he dominated, stacking up 235 tackles and 5 interceptions in just 3 years.  During these three years, he was named all-state and all-district for the defensive back position.  Unfortunately for him, he injured his knee after the third game of his senior year, requiring surgery.  At UT, he helped the Longhorns to become one of the top defenses in the nation during his freshman year, appearing in 13 of 14 games at either safety or on special teams.  His sophomore year, Vaccaro started six of twelve games at safety and was named Most Valuable Special Teams Player of the Year.  After this, he started every game for Longhorns at safety. Vaccaro name was mentioned in many awards and honors including the All Big-12 team, and Defensive Player of the Year. Now, Vaccaro's name is mentioned in headlines all over the nation and is being rated as college football's top safety.
        In today's pass-heavy offense run in the NFL, safeties are required to have great versatility.  They need to be able to cover receivers and tight ends and provide support against the run.  This is what makes Kenny Vaccaro such an awesome player.  During his senior year, the Longhorns would use him in all types of defensive schemes, placing him far up field in deep zone, man covering slot receivers, lining up next to linebackers for run support, and even blitzing the quarterback.  NFL coaches will surely love the fact that they can plug him in almost anywhere and he can make it work.  Another strength of his is his aggressive instinct for the game.  On some plays, Vaccaro seems to know what play the offense is running before it even begins and he acts upon them. One specific example of great instinct from Vaccaro came from his game against West Virginia.  In a play called a "reverse", the offense begins running the ball one way but then hands it off to run the opposite way.  While the whole defense got fooled, Vaccaro saw it the whole way and ran from the opposite side of the field to make the tackle and stop it short of the first down.  That is just one example of how instincts prove to be one of Vaccaro's biggest assets.
        For the most part, Vaccaro is a sure tackler, meaning he usually secures tackles well and brings the ball carrier to the ground.  But, against players running in the open field, he would often miss his tackles.  More than once he has been juked out of his shoes by running backs moving freely in the open field.  Although tackling in the open field is one of the hardest plays to make as a defender because ball carriers have so much space to avoid the tackle, Kenny Vaccaro definitely needs to improve on that if he wants to be successful at the next level.  Making these plays could mean the difference between a few yards gained and a touchdown.  Something else Vaccaro needs to work on is biting on the play action.  A play action pass is
one where the quarterback fakes a hand off to the running back but is actually passing the ball.  Because Vaccaro provides support against the run so often, he naturally moves up to hit the running back.  This allows receivers to run past him into the deep field and catch a long pass for a touchdown.  Although these weaknesses require only a little tweaking from coaches, they can mean giving up huge plays in the NFL.




Games Viewed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwv2OIrF6yI
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)